Shared Focus

Week 02 - Reflections

Our word to “reflect” upon this week is Reflections and was chosen by Martie. 

Kate:

I struggled a bit with this one…I had lots of ideas to pursue but none of them were working out quite the way I anticipated.  In the end, I chose this image which reflects the sky and a floating dock which was stacked with dark blue kayaks.  Because I live on an island and am surrounded by the ocean, water is a constant in my life; I look out on it from my windows, the main street of our small town ends at the water’s edge and I walk along the beach almost daily…it permeates my life. The reflections on the water are constantly changing as the landscape, the weather and the seasons themselves, shift and change.

The text is from the song “Long, Long Journey" by Enya and for me it reflects the life long journey that we all make to come home to our hearts.  As I grow older it becomes all the more important for me to connect daily with the sacred space within my own heart.

Martie:

“She walks through her life and wonders what happened.  The face in the mirror that returns her stare is unfamiliar.  The woman in the shop window wearing her clothes is a stranger.  She looks back, sorting through her memories and wonders if they  are as distorted as the reflections in the water, based in fact but grown softer and gentler over time.”

I was really challenged by this one - wondering if I should take a photo of reflections in a mirror or a shop window.  In the end I decided on the water because I love water.  This week I have really pushed myself and written my own words.  I think they may be something that is just beneath my conciousness, a growing thought/reflection as I grow older.

 

Thanks for stopping by!  If you’d like to play along with us, you’ll have two weeks to post a photograph on your own blog or website.  Don’t forget to leave a link in the comments to let us know where to find you, as well as a link on your own site redirecting your readers back to Shared Focus.  We’d love to see where “reflections” takes you.

Week 01 – Wandering

Kate suggested “wandering” as the word to begin our collaboration and here’s what we came up with…

Martie:

  

I am haunted by images of my youngest leaving home.  She is spreading her wings and I feel so happy and sad at the same time.  I am hoping that this photo, although not creative, will help me put these feelings to rest.  I am the one who is now earthbound and she is wandering!

* * *

Kate:

 

The inspiration for this photograph came from family stories of my grandparents emigrating from Scotland to begin a new life in Canada.  My mother was ten and her brother just seven when they left Aberdeenshire by boat in 1924, taking with them just a few precious belongings.  I imagine them standing on the dock waiting to board their ship…the SS Merloch.  The parents…nervous about leaving their families and all they have ever known to step into the unknown, and the children…excited by the adventure but not grasping the enormity of how their lives are about to change. 

I am awed by their courage.

Thanks for stopping by!  If you’d like to play along with us, you’ll have two weeks to post a photograph on your own blog or website.  Don’t forget to leave a link in the comments to let us know where to find you, as well as a link on your own site redirecting your readers back to Shared Focus.  We’d love to see where “wandering” takes you.

There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.
Ansel Adams

Welcome to the Shared Focus photography collaboration project!  Click on 'Who We Are" in the side bar to find out more about us. 

We will be posting our responses to a new word or phrase "challenge" every second Sunday, so we invite you to bookmark the site and come back often to see where the project takes us.  If you'd like to join in the fun and play with us, you'll have two weeks to post a photograph on your own site.  Don't forget to come back and leave a link in the comments so we know where to find you.